


Nowhere to Run

by lifeofroonilwazlib



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Action/Adventure, One Shot, ish?, super short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28588449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifeofroonilwazlib/pseuds/lifeofroonilwazlib
Summary: Her knife is useless in her hand and her skin is burning and she’s losing balance and – and she gets her answer.Jump.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Nowhere to Run

**Author's Note:**

> I was blessed with a percabeth version of the falling trend on tiktok by avamaimome and i couldn't resist. go watch it - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSvgvxqf/ !!
> 
> **Also warning for some strong language!**

Annabeth has forgotten how fast hydras are. She curses as she runs through the sloping hillside – so it isn’t just that she was thirteen the last time and couldn’t fight as well. Hydras are just a piece of fucking work.

As she reaches the edge of the road carved into the mountain, Annabeth stops for a minute, hands on her knees, breathing hard. The road curves, and on its other side is a sheer drop into the sea below. The sinking sun, the tangy air, the crashing waves – it’s California’s cliffs at their finest. She could stop and admire it, but the hydra is getting too close.

A simple recruit mission – why the _Hades_ couldn’t things ever go as planned? The two stranded demigod children they were scouting had been found, but _of course_ a whole nest of hydras got there first. She’s grateful Percy took the kids out of the way, but now she’s the one being chased by a murderous, raging eight-headed monster.

 _Options, options,_ she thinks to herself. She’s backed into a corner, the hydra’s hissing is growing closer and only the drop into the ocean is in front of her. Her thighs burn from the sprint down the hill.

There’s a frothing, foaming screech and the monster emerges from behind a boulder. Annabeth tightens her hand around the hilt of her blade. _Burn the stumps_ , she remembers – that’s how Hercules did it. With what flame? It’s a windy day. The matchbox in her pocket won’t cut it. Hercules’ labours always did seem a little too convenient.

No warship to blow the fucker up either. _Damn._

She doesn’t let herself panic. _Come on, this can’t be worse than Arachne._

Eight tongues flick out, and she swallows her surprise as the hydra hisses, “ _Athena_ ,” and licks its eight sets of lips.

_Like the taste of wisdom, huh?_

Annabeth screws up her eyes and forces herself to think. The waves behind her are distracting – they remind her of crooked smiles, sea-green eyes, salty kisses – _oh._ Her eyes open. Time, she needs time to confirm her plan.

“So hydras have evolved speech?”

It spits acid in response.

“Still learning, then?”

“ _I will crush you…”_ It’s voice is a chorus, grating and ragged.

“Yeah, got that from context,” Annabeth mutters, too busy desperately trying to send her senses out to the sea. They can’t always do this, but it’s happened in battle before – a tug in the stomach that pulls them together, tells them exactly what to do to save the other. The Athena kid in her hates to rely on it, but Percy always gets her acting all irrational.

In her mind, she claws at the air over the ocean, screaming his name. _Percy, Percy, tell me you’re there –_

 _“Nowhere to run, daughter of Athena,”_ the hydra gloats, and closes in.

Annabeth backs up all the way across the road, until her legs are pressed against the guardrail overlooking the cliff. The snake heads are just three feet away from her now, and her eyes water from their poison breath.

_Where ARE you –_

A head slithers right into her face, and Annabeth leans back dangerously to avoid the tongue scraping her cheek.

_Percy, Percy, PERCY –_

Her knife is useless in her hand and her skin is burning and she’s losing balance and – and she gets her answer.

_Jump._

Annabeth takes a second to straighten herself, and the monster rears back in surprise. She flips her knife, grins at the hydra, and tips back over the edge.

Too late, the creature remembers the other fighter, the one who took out its siblings with celestial bronze and seawater. As she falls, hair whipping around her face, she laughs at the shock on each of the hydra’s heads.

Just before Annabeth hits the water, it rises up to meet her and snatches her out of the air with a familiar grip. She’s still laughing as she sinks into the waves, and then he’s there, pulling her to him by her bead necklace, making a bubble to give her air, then stealing it back with his lips.


End file.
